Intel hints at Light Peak launch tomorrow

Jos

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Intel has invited journalists to a pair of events in California this Thursday, where it will "discuss a new technology that is about to appear on the market" and conduct technology and product demonstrations. The event is perhaps not so coincidentally timed with the rumored refresh of Apple's MacBook Pro lineup, which will reportedly introduce Intel's Sandy Bridge processors on that same day, as well as a connector based on Light Peak technology.

The new interconnect is said to offer two-way transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps, which is more than double the maximum throughput of USB 3.0 connectors that Apple has been reluctant to adopt. In the future, Light Peak may scale to 100Gbps and Intel hopes it will serve as a single universal replacement for current buses such as SATA or USB, but that's certainly not going to happen in its first implementations -- especially with the switch back to copper cabling.

There's no solid evidence that we'll see the new connector on products this week but it would coincide with the time frame Intel laid out for Light Peak's debut, and at the very least it seems new MacBooks are indeed around the corner.

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Not exactly thrilled by this. Light Peak sounded pretty cool when it was fiber optic, but on copper not so much. Now if new Mac's start having a new hookup thats going to be a pain. Especially if people start bringing in drives that hook into Light Peak ports for me to print files off of.
"Sorry sir, none of our computers have that port." Not a conversation I want to have with our not so tech savvy standard customers.....
 
TorturedChaos said:
Not exactly thrilled by this. Light Peak sounded pretty cool when it was fiber optic, but on copper not so much. Now if new Mac's start having a new hookup thats going to be a pain. Especially if people start bringing in drives that hook into Light Peak ports for me to print files off of.
"Sorry sir, none of our computers have that port." Not a conversation I want to have with our not so tech savvy standard customers.....

Agree with you on the first, but as to the second I doubt you'll have to worry about it for at least a year and a half, and that's if there is a successful launch. Look how long it took oems to adopt usb 3.0 ports, and even now they are still something of a performance curio rather than the standard.
 
And dont forget to mention the cap on our actual devices, a 10GB port for my 50MB/S write/read HDD isnt on my list and for USB devices, well its the same overcap on this new port.
 
chazz said:
I would've been much more excited about this if they didn't go back to copper wires.

Me too, except they claim it shouldn't reduce the 10 gigabits/s. Though I can't seem to find an article that explains just what the difference would be in terms of technical details between the fiber optics and a copper wire. Anyone know of a source that gets into the nitty gritty?
 
raswan said:
chazz said:
I would've been much more excited about this if they didn't go back to copper wires.

Me too, except they claim it shouldn't reduce the 10 gigabits/s. Though I can't seem to find an article that explains just what the difference would be in terms of technical details between the fiber optics and a copper wire. Anyone know of a source that gets into the nitty gritty?

10gbps over fiber is the same as 10gbps on copper. People are just whining over the material used. It's like complaining that your 10mbps internet service is going over phone lines instead of cable infrastructure.
 
I get excited over new implementations of tech,ok? It has nothing to do with speed, Sata 6Gb does not excite me anymore than sats 3Gb.
 
Princeton said:
10gbps over fiber is the same as 10gbps on copper. People are just whining over the material used. It's like complaining that your 10mbps internet service is going over phone lines instead of cable infrastructure.

Thats like saying someone running 100m at 20mph is the same as running 6000m at 20mph.
Or viewing webpages over http is the same as viewing them over https.

Fiber optic media has several advantages over copper besides overall bandwidth.
 
Thats like saying someone running 100m at 20mph is the same as running 6000m at 20mph.
Or viewing webpages over http is the same as viewing them over https.

Fiber optic media has several advantages over copper besides overall bandwidth.


Wont light peak (fiber optic) as a a result of its massive bandwidth in the future be able to replace several interfaces/buses ie USB, PCIE, SATA etc into a single delivery , and solve electrical signal degradation? (especially video degradation) not to mention issues such as heat?
 
i love the light peak idea and i am glad that Intel is getting out on the market so quick.
i am less thrilled that apple seems to get first dips on it.

by going back to copper they mean whatever is behind the controller connected to it. like hdd's, monitors, etc

if your HDD only has 50Mb/s throughput it's time for an upgrade.
 
PanicX said:
Princeton said:
10gbps over fiber is the same as 10gbps on copper. People are just whining over the material used. It's like complaining that your 10mbps internet service is going over phone lines instead of cable infrastructure.

Thats like saying someone running 100m at 20mph is the same as running 6000m at 20mph.
Or viewing webpages over http is the same as viewing them over https.

Fiber optic media has several advantages over copper besides overall bandwidth.

My comparison doesn't need to factor in the fiber vs copper signal degradation over distance, heat dissipation ect because it isn't being used to lay out a new internet infrastructure. It's being used inside a computer case as a very fast transfer system. Your HTTP vs HTTPS comparison is just as senseless because it all depends on how and why it is being used. In the case of light peak 10gbps fiber will have no discernible advantages over copper. When we see 100gbps light peak that'll be a different story.

red1776 said:
Wont light peak (fiber optic) as a a result of its massive bandwidth in the future be able to replace several interfaces/buses ie USB, PCIE, SATA etc into a single delivery , and solve electrical signal degradation? (especially video degradation) not to mention issues such as heat?

Obviously it will. But if using copper gives the same transfer speed as the fiber optic then there isn't reason for people to complain as long as intel does roll out the 100gbps fiber version on time. The implementation won't see any improvements going from copper 10gb to fiber 10gb so there isn't really any point.
 
Obviously it will. But if using copper gives the same transfer speed as the fiber optic then there isn't reason for people to complain as long as intel does roll out the 100gbps fiber version on time. The implementation won't see any improvements going from copper 10gb to fiber 10gb so there isn't really any point.


That was was exactly my point a month or two ago when people were bitching that is was being rolled out with copper and calling it worthless. Light peak is a a forward thinking and incremental part of an infrastructure that is coming at some point (I don't profess to know the time frame mind you) but when the fiber cable that Qwest is currently laying, and running up to my home is here, Light peak minus the copper is going to be amazing. My point is to those shouting down light peak because it is being initiated with copper,
I would've been much more excited about this if they didn't go back to copper wires.

to which I say, 'you need to have a little more vision than that'.
 
Princeton said:
raswan said:
chazz said:
I would've been much more excited about this if they didn't go back to copper wires.

Me too, except they claim it shouldn't reduce the 10 gigabits/s. Though I can't seem to find an article that explains just what the difference would be in terms of technical details between the fiber optics and a copper wire. Anyone know of a source that gets into the nitty gritty?

10gbps over fiber is the same as 10gbps on copper. People are just whining over the material used. It's like complaining that your 10mbps internet service is going over phone lines instead of cable infrastructure.
USB is over copper. Why do we need LightPeak if they use copper?
 
Raswan said:
Agree with you on the first, but as to the second I doubt you'll have to worry about it for at least a year and a half, and that's if there is a successful launch. Look how long it took oems to adopt usb 3.0 ports, and even now they are still something of a performance curio rather than the standard.

Yah I know I wouldn't have to worry about it in the next several weeks or even months, just not that thrilled about a new port to deal with and ***** customers. As my boss is fond of saying while I'm on the phone trying to tell someone where the Start menu is "What's a window!". Makes it hard not to laugh at the customer... :p.
 
red1776 said:
to which I say, 'you need to have a little more vision than that'.

When intel starts talking up their fiber version then I'll get excited. What timeline did they give for it?

The new memory tech from Micron is something exciting to me, DDR4 is not.
 
When intel starts talking up their fiber version then I'll get excited. What timeline did they give for it?

The new memory tech from Micron is something exciting to me, DDR4 is not.

They haven't really, They have intimated that light peak will move along at the same pace as the whole infrastructure moves to being fiber optic. I for one would finally like to use the TOSLINK that has been on my MB's and A/V equipment for 20+ years.
 
i hope they didn't bury the whole lightpeak idea by giving apple dips on it.
i know apple needs this badly and i am sure they paid top dollar to intel for this.
 
chazz said:
red1776 said:
to which I say, 'you need to have a little more vision than that'.

When intel starts talking up their fiber version then I'll get excited. What timeline did they give for it?

The new memory tech from Micron is something exciting to me, DDR4 is not.

Car companies has talked about 'alternative fuels' for ages, but haven't been able to deliver 'economically viable' alternative fuel vehicles (and I don't buy stupid arguments that electric cars work, because they simply don't). By the way how many of us complain about it or have stopped buying new cars because of their failures?

So Princeton and red have been very rightfully pointing out that if lightpeak is delivering what it advertises to do so, I don't care about the medium it is being delivered upon. Beside when there will be a "need" for faster interconnect I'm sure by that time it will be ready to be delivered on fiber-optic .
 
Archean said:
chazz said:
red1776 said:
to which I say, 'you need to have a little more vision than that'.

When intel starts talking up their fiber version then I'll get excited. What timeline did they give for it?

The new memory tech from Micron is something exciting to me, DDR4 is not.

Car companies has talked about 'alternative fuels' for ages, but haven't been able to deliver 'economically viable' alternative fuel vehicles (and I don't buy stupid arguments that electric cars work, because they simply don't). By the way how many of us complain about it or have stopped buying new cars because of their failures?

So Princeton and red have been very rightfully pointing out that if lightpeak is delivering what it advertises to do so, I don't care about the medium it is being delivered upon. Beside when there will be a "need" for faster interconnect I'm sure by that time it will be ready to be delivered on fiber-optic .

Except not being excited about something does not mean that I can't understand it's capabilities/uses/worth. I have sata 6Gbs, USB3 but it does not get that little kid inside of me riled up reading or talking about it. Is this hard to understand?
 
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